AUGUSTA -- Opponents of Maine's school-district consolidation law said they submitted more than 61,000 signatures to state officials today in an effort to land a repeal question on the November 2009 ballot.

Saying the 2007 law endangers small, rural schools and a tradition of local control over school districts, members of the Maine Coalition to Save Schools carted approximately a dozen boxes of petitions to the Secretary of State's elections office in the Cross State Office Building.

"There are no cost savings in this," Lawrence "Skip" Greenlaw, of the coalition, said to reporters at a news conference before submitting the signatures.

Legislators passed the school-district consolidation law in June 2007 in an effort to cut down on school district administrative costs. The law aims to reduce the number of public school districts in the state from 290 to 80.

Voters next month will weigh in on 17 plans for proposed district mergers. Under the law, the district mergers must take effect by July 1, 2009.